Categories: OLD Media Moves

Axel Springer to combine Business Insider with eMarketer

Axel Springer, the German publisher, said on Thursday it would combine the operations of its two main U.S. units, millennial-focused financial news site Business Insider and market researcher eMarketer.

Douglas Busvine of Reuters reports, “The news comes as private-equity house KKR readies an offer to buy out minority shareholders in Springer for 63 euros a share, supporting its main owners who want to take the company private and pursue long-term growth.

“Insider Inc. and eMarketer Inc. will join forces on Jan. 1, 2020, and Insider CEO Henry Blodget will head the merged operation, Springer said in a statement.

“Business Insider, which Springer bought in 2015, has led its push into digital news. Its revenues have grown at an average annual rate of 33% to reach $100 million in 2018, when it turned a profit, according to a Springer presentation.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.